30 Years After Dry Cleaning Snafu, Tennessee Brides Swap Wedding Dresses

NASHVILLE, TN — Within weeks of one another in 1986, Kim Jones and Shannon McNamara were each married. The women, both Overton High School graduates, went to the same dry cleaner — White Way Cleaners, one of Nashville's oldest businesses — to have their gowns preserved, and both carefully stored the gown, never opening the box, because, after all, why would you need to?

But four years ago, Jones decided to show her daughter her dress, she told WKRN. And she instantly knew something was amiss: The dress in the box had long sleeves. Jones was married in a short-sleeved dress.

“I felt sad that I had someone else’s dress,” she told the station. “It made me sad, because I knew one day this was going to happen to somebody else.”

Fast-forward four years to this weekend at a home in Franklin. McNamara's daughter got engaged, and mother and daughter decided to pull Shannon's dress out of the box. McNamara, who was married in long sleeves, had a short-sleeve dress under the bed.

So, McNamara told WKRN, she did what anybody would do in 2016: She posted pictures of the dress on Facebook. Though Jones band McNamara did not know each other, both being former Overton Bobcats, it was almost inevitable they'd have a mutual friend. And indeed, one saw McNamara's post and remembered Jones' story and put the women in touch.

And of course, each had the other's dress underneath the bed.

Jones, who now lives in Acworth, Georgia, told WKRN she will be traveling to Nashville soon so the gowns will be united with their proper brides.

Image via Wikimedia Commons user Simon Law, used under Creative Commons